ABORTION SUPPORT NETWORK

Abortion Support Network (ASN) is a charity that provides information, financial assistance and accommodation to those forced to travel for abortion care in Europe, mainly from Ireland, Poland, France and Malta. The cost of this ranges from £400 to £3000 or more depending on circumstance and stage of pregnancy.

ASN was founded with the understanding that making abortion against the law doesn’t stop abortion but only stops safe abortion. ASN is not a campaigning or lobbying organisation. While other organisations campaign for much needed law reform, our volunteers work hard to provide immediate, practical support to those who are unable to access safe and legal abortion in their own countries. We believe that the laws in these countries should change, so that ASN’s work becomes obsolete. In the meantime, we will do as much as we can to help as many people as possible.

We opened in 2009 to Ireland, Northern Ireland and the Isle of Man. While need for our services in Ireland and Northern Ireland diminished in 2018 and 2019 due to law reform in the Republic of Ireland and the availability of free treatment in England for those in Northern Ireland, we continued to hear from people who fell through the cracks of legal provision and still needed to access care abroad. In early 2019, we opened our service to those resident Malta and Gibraltar and in December 2019 we launched Abortion Without Borders for people living in Poland, a collaborate initiative delivered in partnership. We now help anyone in Europe on a case-by-case basis.

Since 2009 we have helped over 9,000 people from Ireland, N Ireland, Malta, Gibraltar and the Isle of Man, and Abortion Without Borders has helped more than 100,000 people in Poland.